A new research paper reframes the simulation hypothesis, asking whether reality could be simulated and what science can test.

Monisha Ravisetti was a science writer at CNET. She covered climate change, space rockets, mathematical puzzles, dinosaur bones, black holes, supernovas, and sometimes, the drama of philosophical ...

Let's say we build some ridiculous planet-sized computer — one so powerful it could simulate our entire universe. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here ...

The idea that reality might be a kind of cosmic software has moved from late night dorm debates into serious physics journals ...

Researchers say it's impossible to use algorithmic computation to generate everything in our universe. The possibility that our entire universe merely exists inside a computer simulation is more than ...

The notion that we live as characters in someone else’s video game is irresistible to many, even outside of science fiction bookshelves. Googling the term “simulation hypothesis” returns numerous ...

Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow ...

There’s a 50 percent chance we’re living in a computer simulation, according to new analysis. A scientist from Columbia University in the US claims it’s not too far-fetched to suggest our reality is a ...

We see countless stars and galaxies sparkling in the universe today, but how much matter is actually there? The question is simple enough — its answer, however, is turning out to be quite a ...

A military planner at the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia, watches a battle unfold without taking his eyes off the computer screen. The software is tracking a million vehicles spread over ...

In 1952, at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, theoretical physicists Enrico Fermi, John Pasta and Stanislaw Ulam brainstormed ways to use the MANIAC, one of the world’s first supercomputers, to solve ...